How I Revamped My Whole Newsletter in 2 Issues

There's no shame in my game when it comes to murdering my children. I'm talking about tearing up the page on something you worked hard on and starting over.

As an entrepreneur, I've done this a few times. Actually, many times. And as a writer I'm trying to stay true to the same philosophy. From this point forward I've decided to treat my newsletter ( https://www.stealmyidea.io/ ) more like opensource and less like a museum. I'm talking more Life of Pablo, less Gartner. More Pollack, less Economist. I'm going to constantly throw shit against the wall and iterate based on what I find is most compelling. I'm now on issue six and decided to completely rebuild it from the ground up over the last two issues. Here's what I got wrong so far:

First Assumption: People like graphics more than words

What I learned: I tried to make my newsletter a one page infographic, with as few words as possible and chalk full of exhibits. I thought "how novel and neat would it be if my newsletter was one big image". Here's the first one so you can see what it looked like https://www.stealmyidea.io/p/start-your-own-subscription-box-for . Yea, I know, it's got a great face for radio. I was trying to cram ten pounds of shit into a five pound bag. Which led me to the next thing I learned

Second Assumption: People read newsletters on their desktop

What I learned: Nearly everyone who gave me feedback sent me screenshots from their phones...which meant that their screen was smaller than I planned my picture sizes for, and they were zooming in on images with their fingers like peasants

Third Assumption: GIFs are unprofessional

What I learned: GIFs are awesome and you should use them if they support your point. No one wants to see a stock photo of generic yuppies in ties high fiving. Also, people who don't like Gifs are a lot like people who don't like dogs. People I don't want to be around.

Fourth Assumption: If your newsletter is about business, you need to be a data repository

What I learned: No one is paying you to be IDC or Forrester. In fact, they aren't paying you at all! Why try to be something that you are not? Plus, I doubt many people would go to IDC or Forrester for fun business ideas. That would be like chewing sawdust

Fifth Assumption: You have to pick one topic and stick to it

What I learned: Who gives a shit. It's my newsletter. Even though it's technically about business ideas, if I want to throw in a Foo Fighters music video at the end or a Tyson fight from 1996, well shit, DAMN THE TORPEDOS!

So there. Maybe https://www.stealmyidea.io/ will fail, maybe it will succeed. But I've decided that whatever "outcome" occurs will be the result of getting on stage and just doing it live.